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Portland State Moves to Desire2Learn

By Dian Schaffhauser

05/27/10

Portland State University in Oregon has finalized its decision to move to Desire2Learn's learning management system from its current implementation of Blackboard. The university said it expects its migration to take about six months. The product could be available to the general faculty in fall 2010 and may be included in summer courses as a pilot program.

Portland State conducted an evaluation process of several learning management systems earlier this year. The process included open demonstrations for faculty and students, as well as sandboxes in which users could try out the platforms. The university chose as finalists both Desire2Learn and Remote-Learner, which were given public demonstrations in January 2010. Remote-Learner is an open source application based on Moodle.

In a statement Portland U said Desire2Learn was selected based on its ability to meet the institution's technical and functional requirements, the existence of an integrated learning repository within the platform, and the preferences of faculty and staff participating in the evaluation process.

"We are very excited to enter into a partnership with a company so committed to research and development," said CIO Sharon Blanton. "The new tools in Desire2Learn Learning Suite, including Course Builder and Instructional Design Wizard, will save valuable time, enable broader adoption of the platform, and increase the quality of our online course experience for our students."

Desire2Learn is working with Portland U to convert 800 courses to its software. According to a late February article in the student newspaper, the Daily Vanguard, the price of the implementation was expected to be about $200,000.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business for a number of publications. Contact her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.